Rural Councils Victoria has launched their Building Local Capacity Program to build the skills and expertise of Victoria’s rural council workforce.
The $395,000 Building Local Capacity program comprises:
The program will see a significant funding injection into the professional development budgets of RCV’s 37 member councils.
RCV Chair Cr Mary-Ann Brown said the program is designed to improve access to existing programs for those councils who typically struggle to find the budget for professional development for councillors and staff.
“We’re partnering with the Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV) and LGPro, and community engagement experts Projectura to give our members access to industry recognised programs,” she said.
“RCV is offering a 30% cost subsidy to help our members access existing MAV and LGPro programs. We hope that by removing some of the cost barriers we’ll see an increase in staff and elected officials from Victoria’s most isolated councils accessing some of this necessary training.”
“We’re also working with providers to ensure these programs can be delivered closer to home, further reducing the costs in travel, accommodation and time away from work.”
The funding subsidies are available to members until the end of the 2019/20 financial year.
Further funding will be allocated towards the development of employment pathways to improve the supply of hard-to-fill council roles including environmental health, building, planning and compliance through a research partnership with CVGT.
The Building Local Capacity Program is designed to meet gaps in the Victorian local government workforce identified in the Local Government Victoria Rural and Regional Councils Sustainability Reform Program report delivered by KPMG in December 2017.
Cr Brown said the program recognises that the role of councils is changing, and so are the needs of rural communities.
“We’re working with industry experts to support additional training in workforce planning and community engagement, because we know these important skills help every council to deliver better for their communities.”
LGPro Chief Executive Officer Jo-anne Chapman
“LGPro are proud to be partnering with Rural Councils Victoria (RCV) to support their Building Local Capacity Program. The Program has been developed to address existing gaps in the workforce of member councils including leadership and management and industry preparedness to ensure rural councils continue to deliver for their communities in the future.”
Municipal Association of Victoria CEO Kerry Thompson
“MAV looks forward to working in partnership with RCV on the Building Local Capacity Program to increase the capability and effectiveness of the sector through improved access to our 2020 Councillor Development Program.”
CVGT Managing Director Jason Russell
We believe there are some real opportunities to develop employment pathways and to improve the availability of qualified staff for our rural councils. We look forward to exploring this with the RCV Board and their members.”